Field of the Disclosure
Aspects of the disclosure relate generally to communication, and more specifically, but not exclusively, to dynamic subscriptions.
Description of Related Art
Different wireless communication networks can employ different forms of connection and subscription management. For example, Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) deployments and wireless local area network (WLAN) deployments are based on a single subscription model.
In a 3GPP network, a user uses one subscription at a time. Moreover, 3GPP does not support dynamic subscriptions or over-the-air (OTA) sign-up by a user equipment (UE). Also, the Wi-Fi Alliance Hotspot 2.0 (HS2.0) OTA sign-up has not been adopted by 3GPP.
The Wi-Fi Alliance specifies, as a starting point, that a WLAN user manually selects the subscription to be used. In some scenarios, this selection could be performed by upper layer solutions. Based on the subscription selected, appropriate policies (e.g., a HS2.0 managed object (HS2.0 MO)) are designated for the user. Thus, in some aspects, Wi-Fi enables dynamic subscriptions, as well as OTA sign-up for provisioning.
Some wireless communication networks support scenarios where multiple credentials are in use. For example, when a user is connected to a 3GPP network, the user may manually select a specific WLAN and the credentials for it. This typically leads to non-seamless WLAN offload (NSWO) connectivity. Traffic routing can then be based on an access network discovery and selection function (ANDSF). It is theoretically possible that a UE can select a different subscription and a WLAN that enables evolved packet core (EPC) connectivity, but UE and network behavior for traffic routing is undefined in this case.